The Female Gaming Community at Berkeley: A Conversation with CWG

The AWE community has a variety of interests — in this blog post, we’ll be exploring gaming! In our Slack, you can join #g-awe-mes (previously #awe-mong-us) to discuss games or play with other AWE members.

Just like how AWE provides support and community to female and non-binary undergraduate students pursuing Computer Science and/or Electrical Engineering disciplines, Cal Women in Gaming provides opportunities and a social space for marginalized genders in games. Recently, I had the chance to ask a few questions to Meredith and Cathy, the Co-Presidents of the club. We hope that this conversation gives you some insight on what the female gaming community is like at Berkeley!

To start off, here’s a quick introduction to Meredith and Cathy:

🔹M: I’m Meredith, and I work with Cathy as one of the Cal Women in Gaming 2021–2022 Co-Presidents! I’m a rising junior studying cognitive science + psychology.

🔸️C: Hi I’m Cathy and I’m Cal Women in Gaming’s Co-President with Meredith! I’m a rising senior majoring in Data Science.

For those who aren’t familiar, what is CWG? What does a typical member do? How can women at Cal join?

🔹M: Cal Women in Gaming is a Cal Esports + CORSAIR sponsored student organization dedicated to creating social space, professional development opportunities, and a community for marginalized genders in games. This past school year, we’ve been running general events for our club members on Discord (tinyurl.com/CWGDisc)!

🔸️C: Our general members can attend any of the social or professional development events that we host, participate in our one-on-one mentorship program, and chat with other members on CWG’s Discord server.

When and how did you get into gaming?

🔹M: I grew up watching my dad play all sorts of games, from World of Warcraft to Metroid to Dance Dance Revolution. It didn’t take long for me to become interested in video games as well! As a child, I played a lot of games on the Nintendo Wii, DS, and 3DS consoles. At the end of high school, I started to get involved in PC gaming after a friend introduced me to Overwatch, and I’ve been expanding my PC gaming horizons since then!

🔸️C: Back in elementary I would go over to my cousins Debra and Natalie’s house to play Ratchet and Clank on their PS2. I also got a Nintendo DSi around that time and played a lot of games such as Pokemon, Cooking Mama, and Mario Kart. In middle school I asked Natalie to teach me how to play League of Legends since I would see screenshots of the game so often. After a while of playing League, I started to explore other games on my own, such as Skyrim, Blade and Soul, and Overwatch!

How does CWG play a role in your life? How do you participate in CWG?

🔸️C: I joined CWG in its first year as a club as a general member and a participant in its Mentorship Program. I enjoyed being a part of the club so much that I applied to be one of the Mentorship and Industry Relations Lead. The Mentorship Program allows CWG members who have the desire to go into the Gaming Industry to be paired with an industry professional who currently works in a role the student is passionate about. I definitely recommend anyone with an interest in joining the Gaming Industry to apply to be a part of the program! I’ve really enjoyed spending my past two years at Berkeley overseeing the program with my fellow co-leads.

🔹M: I fell in love with Cal Women in Gaming’s events and community after attending the first few events during the 2019–2020 school year. I applied to be a Mentorship and Industry Relations Lead and Family Lead during that year and ended up getting super involved as an officer (Cathy and I were actually Co-Mentorship Leads together)! As the main student club I’m involved in now, CWG keeps me busy thinking about the logistics behind our club events, operations, and partnerships. I participate in CWG now by managing our club relationship with our sponsors Cal Esports and CORSAIR, and by overseeing our officer board + general happenings, both in our Discord server and elsewhere.

What is your go-to game right now? / What is your all-time favorite game?

🔹M: My go-to game right now is League of Legends! League of Legends is a team-based MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) Game. In its most popular mode, players can choose from a multitude of unique champions to engage in a 5v5 battle to occupy and defend different parts of a standardized map, and ultimately destroy the enemy team’s base. I finally started playing a few weeks ago (after wanting to play for years) and it’s been a lot of fun to play with my friends and roommates.

🔹 My all-time favorite game, however, is The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Breath of the Wild (BOTW) is a single-player open world action adventure game that tells the story of Link, who must save the Kingdom of Hyrule from the Calamity Ganon. In BOTW, the amount of freedom given to the player in terms of both exploration and problem-solving is really amazing, and I adore exploring the gorgeous map!

🔸️C: My current go-to game at the moment is Team Fight Tactics, an auto battler game based off of League of Legends characters. Your goal is to be the last player alive in an 8-person free for all. Throughout the game you build a stronger team through gathering gold, items, and characters who synergize with each other.

🔸️ One of my all time favorite games though would be Destiny 2. It’s an online multiplayer first-person shooter which follows the story of your Guardian, and their companion Ghost. I really enjoy the story aspect of the game a lot as well as playing through the raids with the friends I’ve made in its community!

Have you encountered any hate or friction by being a woman in gaming?

🔸C: As a woman in the male-dominated gaming community, I’ve been in a fair share of toxic situations. It ranges from facing microaggressions from male teammates or being on the receiving end of outright inappropriate comments. It doesn’t matter how small or big the act is, it is a situation that the recipient should never be placed in in the first place. At CWG we try to create a welcoming environment where our members don’t ever have to face anything of the sort from others in the community.

How can we better help reduce this friction? What are some things we can do to make the gaming community more welcoming for women?

Some things we have found to be helpful:

1. Creating a safe and welcoming environment for those who are often targeted. Having a space specifically for gender minorities helps them feel more comfortable participating in the gaming community!
2. Find allies / Be an ally! Educate yourself, don’t always rely on others to educate you on the matter! However, we definitely recommend talking to people about their experiences living as a gender minority in games to understand what their experiences are like and what to look out for in the future.
3. Support each other. Your feelings are completely valid and you’re not alone in dealing with these kinds of situations. If you witness discrimination or someone being put in an uncomfortable position, help them out!

Do you have any female gaming role models?

🔸️C: Definitely! One of the people that comes into mind is my mentor Megan. She’s a Cal Alumna that’s currently working at Riot Games and I can always go to her for advice, whether it’s for school or life. She’s a true inspiration to me, she has shown me that you can turn a hobby you love into a career and she’s always willing to help give back to the community.

🔹M: All of our lovely female mentors in our CWG mentorship program! I’ve learned so much hearing about their personal journeys, advice, and experience working in the video games industry during panels, mentorship conversations, and more. Shoutout to my former mentor Alicen who taught me so many cool things about professional development, personal branding, and creative strategy in the industry.

🔹 I also want to highlight two of my biggest inspirations: former CWG Co-presidents Helen and Julia (both UC Berkeley class of 2021)! They’re both incredibly accomplished and I can’t wait to see where both of them go working in the games industry. :)

Any other thoughts to add?

Join CWG (hehe)! Check out our links here: https://linktr.ee/CalWomeninGaming